Jose Mourinho Reveals The ‘Best’ Player He Has Ever Coached
Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Jose Mourinho finally put his finger on the superstar who he thinks is the ‘best’ player out of the plethora of talent he has coached over the years.
The Portuguese boss has managed the likes of Javier Zanetti, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, just to name a few, but the one star Mourinho believes to be the best of the lot came as a big surprise during his recent interview.
The 54-year-old has had very successful stints with some of Europe’s elite clubs, including FC Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and is currently under contract at Manchester United. The Portuguese has won eight league titles and two Champions League trophies with the sets of players which were made available to him, but Jose named the player with whom he has never won any European silverware to be the ‘best’ of the lot.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Mourinho pointed out his recent signing Nemanja Matic to be his top choice for the accolade. The Portuguese stated: “(Nemanja) Matic, I cannot say that I had better guys than him in my career.”
Reuters / Tony O’Brien
Mourinho recalled a story from his time at Chelsea, when he subbed Matic off after having brought him on as a sub in the first place, as he added: “He has with me something which marks forever, which was a match where he was on the bench, I play him minute 45 and I took him off minute 70, 75.”
“The press wants a story, the press wants blood. My blood, or his blood, or both. He was really sad. I was also sad because it’s not something nice and it’s something that I did only twice in my career.
“But the next day he comes to me and he says, ‘I’m not happy, but it’s my fault. I’m not happy with what you did to me, but it’s my fault, because the way I was playing I can understand the change. So let’s keep going.'”
Matic was a vital part of the Portuguese’s line-up at Chelsea, and now, he seems to be following the same path at Manchester United.
Written by Sidharth Jindal 
Sports fanatic with a passion for writing (predominantly football) and “Wants to live life to its fullest.” Writes about the Premier League on his personal blog.